they are the very personal searches that have changed the game for the tsa. >> we need to revisit the whole tsa. >> reporter: mica complains the tsa costs $7 billion a year and is going too far. he's now asking the nation's largest 100 airports to fire the tsa and bring back contractors to do the security screening the same way things worked before 9/11. bwi is among the airports that got the letter, according to spokesperson linda werheim. >> we have received the letter. we're evaluating our options and will be preparing a response. >> reporter: travelers have opinions across the board. >> i don't think it should be privatized. >> reporter: why not? >> i think it would be more consistent if it was done by the government. >> i would say bring the private sector on, see if they can do a better job. can't imagine if they could do worse. >> reporter: the new body scans and patdowns are a direct response from new threats, from the so so-called underwear bomber last holiday season.

the administrator defends his position. >> the purpose of being more invasive is to detect those type of devices we hadn't seen since, for example, before last christmas >> reporter: the same law that gave the tsa this gave the airport to go with private contractors. the airport in san francisco has stuck with private security all these years since 9/11. scott broom, 9 news now. late today the tsa announced that airline pilots will be allowed to skip some of those physical security checks at airports. pilots are among those complaining the loudest about those searches. more than 10,000 people are slated to get a piece of the hundreds of millions of dollars set aside for workers exposed to toxic dust at the site of the world trade center. that is just more than 95% of the people who needed to sign on to make the deal effective, and that means an end to most of the lawsuits over new york city's failure to provide adequate protective equipment to the

workers who cleared the rubble. we've got some breaking news tonight out of the district where one of the top cops is on administrative leave. assistant chief diane grooms is being investigated after accusations that she was involved in a cheating scandal. she is accused of compromising a test during an annual round of in-service training. we're going to have more on this story coming up tonight at 7:00. police believe they've got the man who snuck into more than 100 local homes behind bars tonight. you read about the arrest of the serial burglar first at wusa9.com. now surae chinn is here to fill us in. >> reporter: a sigh of relief of homeowners across this region and especially right here in northern virginia. residents have been terrified that someone has been able to walk into their homes in the middle of the night while they're sleeping and the burglar leaves without a trace. residents are resting easier

tonight. police say this is the serial burglar, 34-year-old brad edmonds from oxen hill, maryland. fairfax county police say they were conducting two weeks of surveillance on edmonds, tracing him to this potomac maryland neighborhood on lake potomac drive. both fairfax and montgomery county police observed him breaking into two cars, one of which belongs to bob cliffford's son. >> this guy was sneaky. it was a stormy night, this was thunder and lightning. >> reporter: after those break-ins, police arrested edmonds thursday morning. in the last several months, investigators say he's been responsible for more than 100 home break-ins in northern virginia. the serial burglar picked wealthy neighborhoods, had a pension for designer purses and in some cases bypassed guard dogs. >> he was very brazen, obviously, very quiet, very stealth oriented. >> reporter: chief rohrer says a fairfax county res dents helped solve the case when they noticed a suspicious vehicle. that led police to question

edmonds on a traffic stop. during the questioning, police found handwritten addresses of places that were hit. that's when they identified him as their suspect. police let him go, but from that point on, edmonds was their prime suspect. charging documents say this week a joint surveillance using officers with night vision goggles observed him in the act. >> if i could dance in the street, i would. i am so pleased about this. i have to be cautious still because we haven't concluded our investigation yet, but to have this many burglaries and to have a suspect we believe responsible for some, if not all of these, it is truly a great story for us. >> reporter: edmonds faces several charges in montgomery county, but many more charges are pending in fairfax county. edmonds is being held without bond, or, actually, held with bond for $425,000. live here in vienna, surae chinn, 9 news now. >> thank you for that. we've got an update tonight on that falling concrete at the

fairgat north station. we contacted officials last night to determine ne links in a concrete crack in the beam last year. metro tells us the cracks were found during routine maintenance and immediately braced and made safe. then in april, $11 million were approved to install and support a pier and reenforce the existing beam. we are told that work is under way and it is in no way related to wednesday's incident. a commuter alert tonight may have you avoiding the beltways this weekend. in just under two hours, we're talking about some major work that's going to begin on the outer loop of the beltway between the eisenhower avenue connector and telegraph road. crews are going to start by closing the right lane and the exit ramps in that span as part of the wilson bridge project. >> it's going to be a significant impact to traffic on the outer loop. we're going down to one lane between 8:00 p.m.

tonight and mid tkaá tomorrow. so, as you can see, there's a lot of volume out here and it's going to be a significant impact, so i'm suggesting everybody take an alternate route. >> you have been warned. that best alternate route will likely be route 1. by the way, the outer loop should be open completely by sunday night. let's check on the roads right now. richard andre is going to give you some time-saver traffic. >> reporter: as we're driving virginia eastbound on the dulles toll road, we had an earlier serious crash that was east of route 7. looks like now that traffic does squeeze by at that poimt. we've got one lane getting by at latest word, the right lane. looks like still a stackup going from 7 to the beltway. at least traffic does get by at that particular point. there's a bit of good news. also driving in northwest d.c. now, some police activity has lane closures at 21st street and l street. looks like we're checking for a suspicious package there. the police ask you not use that area for the next hour or so. also venturing in towards

maryland on the inner belt loop, stop and go to new hampshire avenue with a couple of brakes. other side outer loop slow from 93 heading to georgia avenue. inner loop watch for brake lights i-95 heading all the way down to and beyond route 50. lesli. >> thank you, richard. imagine getting into a cab, trying to pay, being told your payment isn't good enough and then being dropped off in the middle of no where, only to get attacked. we'll tell you what one local woman is doing about it coming up. tom. >> reporter: if you're headed out, i would grab a jacket. temps really fall. let me show you what the high and low was today. a little bit below average, not crazy cool, but 54 and 38 goes in the books. averages are 57 and 40. record high 77, record low 18. we'll come back and talk about the rest of the weekend. it could be the number eight and we're looking ahead to travel day. plus, first, finding the perfect gift can be hard enough. now we're hearing those old standby gift cards may come with their own problems this year. we're going to clear up the

confusion up next.

a gift card may be the perfect holiday stocking stuffer for the person who has everything, but beware, there is a chance that the small print on the back of the card may be wrong. although new provisions on expiration dates and fees took effect this past summer, lawmakers gave those card issuers until early january 2011 to pull the outdated cards out of circulation. so as of now, you've got five years to use your card before it expires. stores are supposed to make that clear to you either in an ad or sign, but not all of them are. if you've got questions, you can always ask the retailer or consumer reports suggests you might just want to give cash or a check instead. to read more about your state's gift card protection laws, go to our website, wusa9.com and

click on consumer. we are just a week away from the pinnacle of holiday shopping, black friday. but one florida family is already preparing for the mad rush to get to the best deals. they are camped deals in front of a st. petersburg best buy to rush in and grab their holiday gifts. >> we're here really early this year because we've always been second, third and fourth and down the line, and we're tired of not being first. >> so the 10 family members are taking turns holding the line in a spot. they're sleeping in a tent and they say all the waits does pay off because last year they saved $1,000 on a new hd television. you can make us your source for your holiday bargains. head to wusa9.com and click on our ready set shop page for the hottest deals and some great gift ideas. well, a falls church hospital could fall prey to some big budget cuts. we'll have more on that.

plus what a jury asked a judge today as they deliberated the chandra levy murder case. both stories coming up next on 9 news now. lots of lotions promised healing.

this one actually does it. [ female announcer ] gold bond ultimate healing lotion. nothing feels like it, smells like it, heals like it. gold bond. this stuff really works. we will have to wait until at least monday to find out if there was a verdict in the chandra levy murder trial. the judge sent jurors home for the weekend about an hour ago after three days of deliberations with no verdict. they did send the judge a note today asking for the legal definition of an assault. ingmar guandique is facing two counts of murder in the disappearance and death of the intern nine years ago. a woman is suing arlington bluetop cab for $5 million claiming that she was sexually assaulted after a cabbie left her in a dangerous area two years ago. the suit says she paid with a credit card but the driver said it didn't go through. so he drove her to an atm which wasn't working and he forced her out of the cab. as she walked home, she was

attacked by james samuel williams. williams has been convicted of numerous sexual offenses and has just been sentenced to life in prison. >> when you get into a cab, you're thinking that you'll safely reach wherever you were thinking you were going to get to, and being left on the street is probably not what you signed up for. >> the cab company's manager would not answer any questions upon the advice of their attorney. cardinals from all over the world met with pope benedict today to talk about the roman catholic church's response to cases of sexual abuse by priests. in the end, the vatican announced it would issue a set of guidelines to bishops around the world on how to respond to abuse cases effectively. the day of talk and prayer comes one day before 24 archbishops will be elevated to the college of cardinals, and that includes washington archbishop donald whorl, seen here today at the vatican with his predecessor, theodore cardinal mcí carrick. whorl will be elevated at about 3:30 tomorrow morning our time.

we are starting to learn some of the possible details as virginia struggles to put costs in the next year. governor bob mcdonnell asked a few agencies a few weeks ago to submit their proposals to help control costs. and records obtained by our sister publication, the stanton news leader shows that among those recommendations are the cuts of -- or the closing, rather, of two state mental hospitals and eight correctional centers and that includes a hospital in falls church. governor mcdonnell is reviewing the proposal. we're checking some news from where you live tonight, and fredrick county zoning board does not want a path in its back yard. that's the name of the high transmission power line that would run through several states, including maryland and virginia. planners wanted to build 15 steel towers on 42 acres near mount airy, but the zoning board said no. you can read more about what comes next at wusa9.com. just click on fredrick county in the where you live section. >> that's a nimby right there.

>> not m my back yard >> when they transmit the electricity through these wires, we lose an amount of electricity just by moving that across. we're looking at number eight, lesli, the eighth nice weekend in a row. >> we need to get you a gold star. >> let's look at what's going on right now. temperatures, now we're in the upper 30s and 40ed. it has fallen like a stone tonight. 39 in gaitersburg, 49 in leesburg, even downtown temperatures in the upper 40s and 39 up in fredrick. 46 over in annapolis. satellite picture radar combined, we'll take you out west. a pretty big storm out west and this will become an important weather maker for us next tuesday and wednesday. in the meantime, rain along the coast and big snows in the cascades and eventually the sierra as we get into saturday night and sunday. snow level goes down to about 1,000 feet. for us, it's generally clear to partly cloudy tonight and we're looking at a nice couple of days

although the temperatures will be fluctuating a bit. here's the outside story, a nice november weekend, breezy and milder tomorrow, colder tomorrow night if you're going to the terps game. mostly sunny and cooler on sunday. and, well, milder again on monday. so for tonight, clear skies and cold, low temperatures 34 to about 42. winds will turn and become southwesterly at 10 and that will actually keep temperatures up just a little bit. lows tonight if the winds were to die down dead calm, we'd probably in the upper 20ed and low 30s, but not the case. 35, one of the lower readings in gaitersburg, 36 in rockville, 35 in downtown. a cold spot off to the east. and to the west plenty of mid-30s. 36 in fairfax and reston, 35 in sterling. 35 out in middleburg and upperville and maybe even 34 in manassas. saturday morning, mostly sunny, a cold start, grab your sunglasses, light jacket. 30s and 40s and winds southwesterly at 10 to 15. it will be breezy primarily in the morning on saturday. then by afternoon, partly cloudy, milder, really a nice

day. high temperatures near 60 and winds turn out of the northwest at 10, but they're not going to be that breezy in the afternoon. so a spectacular saturday really. the next three days, nice on saturday, 60, but then cooler on sunday, 53. but then milder on monday, we're back up to 64. winds may pick up a little bit as we get into monday as we get into more southwesterly winds. but in terms of the weekend, this is the eighth nice weekend in a row. i know the first weekend in october it rained sunday evening, but for the most part, that was a nice weekend. next seven days, we're back to 66 on tuesday. now, we have two separate events, all right? so afternoon rain and showers on tuesday, then we get a break and then it comes back on wednesday. still mild on wednesday, 60ed. so both travel days are going to be on the wet side here in the mid-atlantic and back to the ohio valley. there's more on our website where we think that rain may end up as snow. we've delayed the cold air now for thanksgiving. i think we'll be in the upper

50s with some leftover showers. and then the cold air comes crashing in thursday night and on friday we could see some snow showers, a patch of light snow, probably the coldest air we've seen in quite some time. temperatures only in the low 40s for highs. for highs. >> wow! okay. it's changing. >> yes, it is. dave is here and you've got some serious sports news tonight. >> absolutely. some late breaking news on a former redskin who was in a serious car accident. we'll give you all the details on that. also we'll have some of the other redskins news of the day. the latest on quentin fordes as he works his way back from injury. all that next in sports.

we begin tonight with breaking news coming out of hawaii. former redskins quarterback brent holton has reportedly been seriously injured in a car accident in hawaii. according to media reports from the big island, he was a passenger in a vehicle that crossed the center line and hit another car head on. reports say brennan suffered

possible head and back injuries in the crash. the driver of the other vehicle was also taken to the hospital after her car overturned in the accident. brennan was released by the redskins before the start of training camp this summer. so we'll keep you updated on that. here's some good news concerning the redskins. clinton porter's m.i.a. with a torn groin will be back on sunday, mike shanahan saying today porter looks good enough to play against the titans. not sure what his work mode will be yet. ryan is not expected to play, still suffer frg a strained hamstring. that's the offense. as for the defense, stray on monday night, greg on the unit trying to find itself. >> reporter: in recent yers, the redskins have had a perennial top 10 defense, but this unit ranks dead last in the nfl. >> i take it very personal. i'm embarrassed by the way we've played defensively. >> reporter: defensive coordinator jim haslett was hired for his expertise in the

3-4. but haslett admits making this change hasn't been easy. >> when you make a switch one to the other without adding a lot of pieces, it's going to take a little bit of time. but we're not happy where we're at right now. >> reporter: and on sunday, the skins have to contain perhaps the league's fastest running back in chris johnson. >> once we get out in the open field, a lot of bad things happen, so we just got to stop them early. stopping johnson is only half the challenge for this struggling defense. like michael vick, the skins face another quarterback in the titans vince young. monday night at least the defense will know what to expect. greg tolan, 9 sports now. >> thanks a lot, greg. music means it's friday night and 9 sports is prepping for another big night of playoff football. the regional round continues tonight in virginia and maryland. d.c. has its championship on thanksgiving day, of course. here's the games we're covering for you tonight. nearly 19,000 of you voted for

our game of the week. liberty at briar woods, also huntingtown at friendly. washington lee at hayfield, all of those games. these are also good, kwins orchard at damascus. louden valley at osborn and robinson at lake braddock. you'll see highlights of those games at 11:18. no greg monroe, no problem. as expected with the departure of their big man to the nba, georgetown is now relying on small ball to win. let's check out some of those small guys. charleston classic, georgetown, this is chris wright, grand theft orange right there. and then the glasswork finish. he had a game high 18 tonight. another one of those small guys, relatively speaking, of course, austin freeman scores right in the defender's mug. he had 14. georgetown stays unbeaten 74- 59. west virginia, vandy, bob huggins giving these guys an earful here. six seconds to go, casey mitchell already with 28. make it 31.

it's 6-3. mountie survived 74- 71. of course we will continue to keep folks updated on the status of colt brennan. >> sure hope he's going to be okay, everybody in that accident. topper has the forecast. >> here's the seven-day. we'll take you through the weekend which is going to be nice. temperatures milder tomorrow but cooler on sunday, still lots of sunshine. mild next week. both travel days. i know some folks making tuesday a travel day as well. that's going to be wet. we get a break and wednesday night more rain showers move in. at least it's mild. just showers on turkey day and that's a snowflake, my friends, early on friday. we pushed it back a day because the cold air is about 36 hours behind what we thought it was yesterday. >> doing some serious bundle upping if you go out on friday. >> also windy. >> whoa! that's a combination. that's it for us on 9 news now at 6:00. "evening news" is next.

we hope to see you back here monday night. if you live for performance, upgrade to castrol edge advanced synthetic oil.